Ever wondered where your Internet connection comes from!?

This infographic is quite useful! It shows the internet's backbone - seacom provides our cable into South Africa.

So, now you know! If your internet connection isn't working and your router is OK you can do a little 'underwater' troubleshooting ;-)

What the internet was like in 1993

In light of my earlier post on how the internet has changed since I first discovered it in the early 1990's I cam across this great image that brought back wonderful memories!

Indeed, this was what the internet looked like in 1993 when I was at Rhodes University.  I would spend hours in the computer lab using TELNET and SLIP clients to 'browse' the web.  ELM was used for email.  I also had a 9600 baud modem that I used to use to dial into the modem rack at the university to get my 'snupm' email!  If I remember I had a Oliveti 386 SX computer with a 160MB hard drive and 4 MB of Ram.  I did most of my work in MS Dos since it was quick and nasty.  But I also had a copy of Windows 3.0 on there and later installed Red Hat Linux 1.  Of course it didn't realy matter what OS was on the machine since most of what I did was via a TELNET client on dialup... I had a little 'trick' (shall we say) to step the telphone company from metering my dialup calls ;-)

Steve Hayes was one of my first 'internet' connections in the Theology / Christian world. Of course I had a few other friends - at that stage mainly hackers, from across the world, that I would connect with. 

Yup, good old Archie to find files, Gopher for search and Mosaic and Netscape 1 for browsing!

Was anyone else using the internet on or before 1993? I'd love to hear your stories!

The problem of pornography - porn on the Internet, an infographic

Wow! This is shocking! Take a look at the infographic below to get an idea of the pervasiveness of Internet pornography.

This such a troubling issue - in my regular counselling as part of my ministry the matter of addiction to porn has become increasingly common. At least once or twice a month I have someone coming to see me about this matter. Frequently it is wives who have discovered that their husband or son is visiting porn sites on their computer or cell phone. At other times it is men who feel convicted by this issue.

If you look at the bottom of this image you'll see that the most common day on which porn is viewed is a Sunday!  My goodness - that is a concern!  Here's what I assume.

- Most men view pornography on their personal computers and cell phones.

- This is done at home (and not at work).

- People view porn when they are not engaged in other mentally stimulating or physically taxing activities (e.g., work, sport etc.)

We need to do something about this.  I am convinced that pornography destroys relationships and objectifies human persons!

Here's what I suggest:

1. Don't place yourself in a situation where you can be tempted! It is far more difficult to fight temptation than it is to avoid it altogether! So, don't ever use you computer in private (make sure your laptop or home computer is in a public space where anyone can walk past and see what you're surfing)

2. Speak openly and honestly to your wife and sons about the challenges and dangers of pornography.

3. Pray that God will keep your mind from this temptation. And, this may sound a bit crazy, but dedicate your computer and cell phone to Holy Purposes! Dan Ariely's great book on the neuroscience of choice ("Predictably irrational") shows that when we make a simple oath like this it is a powerful motivation to do the right thing! I, for example, prayed and offered my cell iPhone, iPad and laptop for Godly use. It makes a huge difference.

4. Get support and help. A simple thing that I have heard about is to get an accountability partner who you agree can check your browsing history and cookies at any time, and someone that you can phone and pray (and even meet) with if you face temptation.

So, do you think I am being puritanical by expecting men (and women) to not access pornography?

If you agree with my perspective do you have any suggestions for combatting temptation? I'd love to hear from you!

The infographic comes from Guy Kawasaki's site here: http://holykaw.alltop.com/the-stats-on-internet-porn-infographic

Please visit his site if you would like a larger copy of the image.

Learning to listen to the earth - is it a good thing?

This amazing video shows how we are learning to listen to the earth! Did you know there are more ‘things’ on the internet than people!?

There are sensors under the roads, in shops, in our offices, homes, schools and our phones - they’re all reporting things to us and about us.

The key is DIKW is the key, moving from:

• captured data to
• usable information to
• knowledge to
• wisdom

I suppose that as long as we gather the data in order to glean information that we can use as knowledge so that we become more wise it is a good thing.

 

For example, I don't like being filmed by hundreds of closed circuit tv cameras wherever I go - but I understand why it is necessary to capture that data, so that the information can help the police to get knowledge about criminals and criminal hot spots so that they can advice people to be wise about where they go, and what they do when they go out.

I've blogged about some of this here (see the post on wolframalpha which I think is very interesting in this regard), and here for a neuroscientific perspective, and this one which deals with strong artificial intelligence.